Jan. 20, 2011
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A contest between a pair of women's basketball teams which are undefeated in Patriot League play will take place Saturday afternoon when Navy visits Army in a 3:30 p.m. game to be played at Christl Arena in West Point, N.Y. Both teams have posted 4-0 records in conference play.
The men's basketball teams from the two academies will take to the court (6 p.m.) after the conclusion of Saturday's women's game. Both games of the doubleheader will be televised nationally by CBS College Sports, with an audio and video stream of the two games also available at www.NavySports.com to Navy All-Access subscribers. A one-month subscription costs $9.95, while the cost for a year-long subscription is $79.95. Additionally, both games will be aired locally by WNAV-AM 1430 and links to live statistics from the two games can be found at www.NavySports.com(.)
The two Navy teams will play host to Army on Feb. 19 in Alumni Hall in the Star Game between the programs.
Navy picked up its fifth straight win -- and sixth in a span of seven games -- Wednesday night with a 53-39 victory over Holy Cross. The Mids took a double-digit lead over the Crusaders late in the first half and early in the second half before Holy Cross whittled the margin down to five minutes with just over nine minutes left to play. Navy would hold the Crusaders to just two field goals over the remainder of the game as the Mids closed the game on a 17-6 run.
Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) scored 14 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out six assists during Navy's win over Holy Cross. Also having strong games Wednesday for the Mids were Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.), who scored 13 points, and Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.), who posted 10 rebounds, eight points and two blocked shots.
Army as a team has held its four Patriot League foes to a league-low average of 47.2 points per game this season. Navy's defense ranks as the No. 2 squad in league play as it is allowing conference opponents to score at a 52.2 points-per-game clip. Army also has the best field goal percentage defense in the league as it has let Patriot League schools connect on just 34.1 percent of their attempts. Navy ranks third in defensive field goal percentage (36.2%). Additionally, Navy is averaging a Patriot League-high 40.0 rebounds a game, while Army is holding opponents to the lowest rebounding average in the league (30.5 rpg).
Individually, Army's Erin Anthony leads the Patriot League (during league play) in rebounding (12.0 rpg) and blocked shots (3.5 bpg) and ranks second in scoring (15.5 ppg).
Saturday's meeting marks not only the first time that both Army and Navy enter the game with undefeated records in league play, it also will be just the fourth time that each team will bring a winning record with them into the contest.
Navy has left West Point with a victory in three of the last four years -- including each of the past two -- to take a 10-9 lead in games played at the venue. The Mids posted a pair of wins over the Black Knights last season, 64-53 in Annapolis and 54-48 at West Point, to sweep the regular season series between the teams for the first time in seven years. Navy's latter victory also gave the Mids possession of the Army-Navy Trophy for the first time since 2003.
Not only is the all-time series between the two teams knotted at 27 wins apiece, the 38 previous Patriot League regular season games also have been evenly split by the programs.
